There is euphoria across the land today among “the People.”   Republicans did not send Scott Brown to Washington. Independents did.   Democrats did.   The PEOPLE did.   Yet, that celebration must be kept in perspective, not unlike your favorite NCAA team who has pulled off an upset of colossal proportions–in just the opening round of the tournament–they haven’t really won much of anything–yet.  This is just the beginning.  But a tidal wave is building, and if we collectively focus on a steady, systematic return, election by election to Constitutional principles as our rallying point, there can be a domino effect from coast to coast.

We will not turn this country around and reclaim our Republic if we expect to find the “perfect” candidate who can be all things to all people.   Seriously, it would be hard to find a SINGLE candidate anywhere who is all things to any ONE person!   If we wait to find, embrace and then support only that candidate in any race who meets all 37 of our own criteria for election, we would elect precisely no one–and change nothing.    It is when American voters are splintered every which way over issues which, while very important (even vitally so to some), that liberal tax and spend and power-away-from-the-People candidates prevail.  We cannot, we must not allow this to happen.  This is precisely why we can give ourselves permission to celebrate Scott Brown’s victory.   Because, what happened yesterday in Massachusetts defied history, arrogant assumptions and the most conventional of wisdom.   And that, my friends, is clear evidence that the voice of the People is being heard and the will of grassroots America will prevail.

So, we will disable and remove this bureaucratic beast, but one fang, one claw, one leg at a time.   We must avoid clinging to the proverbial pendulum as it swings from one extreme to the other.  We can become SO idealistic, SO narrow in our definition of what constitutes an “acceptable” candidate that we end up changing NOTHING.  So we must be sure that our message of a return to fiscal responsibility, Constitutionally limited government and free market solutions to our nation’s ills is neither silenced nor compromised.  And we can all rally around those principles, can we not?

If you were to walk into your house one day and find a 500 lb. block of ice sitting on your kitchen floor, you could take a blowtorch to it to melt it.   But room temperature will accomplish the same thing.  Change for the better may be gradual and incremental, but like a steady rain upon the land, it is no less relentless.

Dan Blanchard